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The Mannequin Challenge is what everyone is doing now

What is the Mannequin Challenge? Teens freezing in place like a mannequin. We explain.

Kenny Ducey

The Mannequin Challenge is what everyone is doing now
The Mannequin Challenge is what everyone is doing now /
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It’s been a whopping six months since the Internet gave us a new viral movement, can you believe that? The Running Man Challenge happened half a year ago.

We were due, and right on time teens have come up with the “Mannequin Challenge,” in which a group of people will stand completely still in place for around a minute. That’s right—the meme involves doing absolutely nothing except for standing completely still. And, like the Running Man Challenge, there is no real challenge involved. You do it as you please.

The group of "mannequins" comes up with some interesting poses, often as Rae Sremmurd’s “Black Beatles,” featuring Gucci Mane, plays in the background. Contrary to some of the meme explainers out there on the web, this is not a new song—it’s on SremmLife 2, which dropped in August.

Anyway, the meme traveled around the web all the way to professional sports leagues in just a week. It seems the incubatory period on these crazes is shrinking by the month, to the point that it gets uncool just as it was finally getting cool.

A quick Twitter search is able to confirm that this is, indeed, the first recorded “Mannequin Challenge” to go up on that platform. Other than a few people posing for photos in front of mannequins, there were no videos of the sort.

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A school district in Jacksonville, Fla. claims that one of its schools—Ed White High School—started the meme.

Here are some videos from the second wave of challenges.

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Some players on Michigan’s football team must have seen them:

And, once the team’s video went viral, some professional sports teams and celebrities caught on.

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Start collecting wagers now on when this will be ruined on the Today Show and Ellen.

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Kenny Ducey
KENNY DUCEY

Kenny Ducey writes baseball, basketball and off-beat stories for SI.com. He is a member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, and an editor at Baseball Prospectus.

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